Chicago Cubs: Brett Anderson would be a good steal and project

Every baseball team’s wish list has a few starting pitchers on it; most general managers have those pitchers near the top of their lists. But there are only so many Zack Greinke, David Price, and Jordan Zimmermans to go around to every team, and there are only so many dollars that can be spent.

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The Chicago Cubs already have $150 million committed to Jon Lester and with the career year Jake Arrieta had, the Cubs are going to be paying well over $200 million for their top two pitchers; meaning they will need to find some more affordable options in free agency and take a gamble.

The kind of gamble that has paid off for them very well in the past with Arrieta and Jason Hammel. Another pitcher that comes to mind that could be a good gamble is former Los Angeles Dodgers’ hurler Brett Anderson.

Anderson could be the right pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and could be had at a very affordable price. Anderson, a 6-foot-3 inch, 240 pound left-handed starter, once was a very promising prospect with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who moved him as one big part of a big trade with the Oakland A’s.

He’s also a former Tommy John surgery recipient, and has had other injury problems over his young career, which, in my mind, will help drop his asking price this offseason.

Anderson has never been able to fully reach his potential due to injuries cutting his season’s short. But this past season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was able to make his career highs in games started (31), innings pitched (180.1), and batters faced (750).

His 10-9 win/loss record may not impress, but a very respectable 3.69 ERA was posted. Some of the success could be attributed to a change in mechanics and lowering his arm slot. With this move, he was able to command his pitches very well.

A change of scenery, a new team, and a proven pitching coach who can fix lost pitchers in Chris Bosio could be all the right ingredients to Anderson’s success and the Chicago Cubs finding a diamond in the rough.

He will only be 28 years old when the season starts, he still has a lot of baseball left in him and has a lot to prove. It seems that he and the Cubs could be a perfect match for each other if the team would take a chance on Anderson and Anderson would be willing to take a short-term contract to prove his value.